Field of the Invention
This invention relates to communicating information (e.g., images, music, speech, text, data and other intelligent information). More particularly the invention will find use with a communications device which may incorporate or benefit from apparatus and/or methods for identifying other communications devices which are available for communicating such information therewith. In this respect, the present invention recognizes that it is desirable for a first communications device to communicate with one or more other communications devices which are sometimes referred to herein as radio devices (even though they may communicate without use of radio waves or with combinations of technologies) without impairment of communications and in particular to identify when such communications would be undesirably impaired, that is, the transfer or conveyance of intelligent information is prevented, diminished, reduced, weakened, lessened, decreased, hindered, slowed, degraded, and the like.
In particular, in one embodiment of the invention a first communications device incorporates apparatus and/or methods such that it operates to determine if another communications device may or may not be available for communicating without, or with impairments to such communications. These impairments may for example occur or change with time, both due to changes in location of one or both of the first and other communications devices relative to an obstruction, or due to temporal changes affecting one or more particular impairment, for example impairments from Earth and Space weather e.g. atmospheric and solar storms. In one aspect of the invention it is desired that estimates and/or predictions (of various possible) impairments which could affect communications between the first communications device and the other communications device(s) be made.
By communicating without impairment, it is meant that the communications are of substantially the same quality as if the communications were not subject to any of the impairment factors which are taken into account when making the impairment determination. It will be seen from the teachings of the preferred embodiment of the invention that it is desired to make the impairment determination, or estimate the amount of impairment, before attempting such communications or otherwise without attempting such communications. In an embodiment of the invention a determination of no, or an acceptable amount of impairment is made and then such communications is attempted and if an unacceptable amount of impairment is determined no communications is attempted. By making the impairment determination first, efforts to communicate with devices with little or no likelihood of successful communications may be avoided.
In the particular example of the preferred embodiment of the invention, impairments may occur due to the locations of geographic features for example such as mountains and/or movement of the first and/or the other communications device. In particular, for an aircraft line of sight communications which will be discussed by example therewith, such relative location and/or movement may cause obstructions to partially or fully block that line of sight. The invention will find particular usefulness in the field of mobile wireless communications where communications may be impaired, including for example to the point of preventing the transfer or conveyance of information with no, or an acceptable level of impairment.
It is noted at this point that as used herein, communicate is defined as the transfer or conveyance of intelligent information and does not include the mere transmission, reception or presence of energy without such transfer or conveyance. Wireless communications is defined as communications through the ether (including space, atmosphere, water and terra firma) such as via electromagnetic, optical and/or acoustical energy or quantum technology and is intended to encompass such communications even if a metallic or other conductive antenna or the like is utilized. Also, as used herein, connected communications is defined as meaning via connection using a solid physical thing, e.g., metallic wire, metallic waveguides, optical fiber, optical waveguides and other known connection technologies including quantum communications over optical fiber or metallic conductors. Wired communications is defined as using metallic or non-metallic conductors of electrons, photons or waves such as drawn, rolled or cast metallic or non-metallic threads, wires, rods, tubes, pipes, waveguides and the like including traditional insulated metal wire, cable and fiber optics.
Additionally, while the preferred embodiment will be described herein substantially in respect to the particular usefulness in wireless communications, the invention will also be adaptable to, and useful for, connected and wired communications as will be understood to the person of ordinary skill in the art from the teachings herein. In another embodiment, the invention will find use in recognizing when communications between a plurality of devices, one or both of which may from time to time change its location, may be substantially impaired or even not possible due to one or more impairment factors, e.g., things, elements, characteristics, effects and the like, which cause or contribute to impairment of the desired communications, as discussed further herein. Predictions of such impairment or lack thereof may also be made and in particular in respect to the preferred embodiment such predictions are preferred to be made in response to the location of obstructions. Alternatively, while generally described below in respect to the location of obstructions, such predictions of impairment may be also be made in response to the location of impairments and the occurrence or predicted occurrence of impairments, e.g. thunderstorms impairing aviation RADAR and other communications over a relatively short term or sunspots and solar flares impairing communications over a longer term. As an example, an 11 year sunspot cycle may be used for prediction of impairment.
As used herein, obstructions include, but are not limited to, physical things like mountain ranges or individual mountains which obstruct line of sight communications by blocking the propagation of energy used for the communications. It will be recognized however that obstructions (unless a specific type is named or described) will include any physical or non-physical things, characteristics, activities, processes, effects or the like, which causes undesired impairment to the communications. As just one specific example, Rayleigh fading is a well-known effect occurring in a propagation environment in the transmission of radio signals which effect can cause impairment to that communication. Rayleigh fading is considered herein to be an obstruction even though it is not a physical thing (although it often occurs in connection with a physical thing such as a reflector). As another example, heavy precipitation in thunderstorms may impair aircraft communications and in particular RADAR, Solar flares and sunspots (which are often related) may impair radio frequency communications.
Related Art
Some prior art radio receivers which incorporate signal strength displays are known (e.g., signal strength meter on a radio receiver or bars on a cell phone). As cell phone users come to understand, a shortcoming of this type of display is that the presence of several bars on the signal strength display is no guarantee that calls can be placed or received, particularly in densely populated areas such as sports arenas. The presence of only a few bars is not always an indication that it is impossible to place or receive calls, particularly at sparsely populated areas with a clear line of sight to a cell tower. Other factors can affect communications, some of which factors are not taken into account by the signal strength display, These prior art signal strength devices may be improved by incorporation of the present invention.
As another prior art example, radio devices may incorporate scanners which attempt to determine the presence of other desired radio devices by scanning for radio frequency energy at particular frequencies. This scanning is in one respect and attempt to receive energy, but receiving such energy does not create communications as defined herein. Nor do such devices make any determination of from where, or from what, that energy comes. The energy present at a particular frequency may or may not originate with a desired radio device, it might for example be from some non-communications device or harmonic interference from an unwanted communications device. The energy may originate with a wanted device, but is received during a short time frame because of various factors (e.g., temporary reflection from an aircraft) or the wanted device signal is blocked (e.g., by temporary interference) and no information as to where the wanted device is located, its distance, direction or altitude is determined.
As another example, a user or user's radio device may for example cause the FM broadcast spectrum to be scanned when the radio receiver is at a given location. The radio receiver stores a list of those frequencies which had energy present during the scan. A shortcoming of this system is that even though energy was available when the scan was performed it does not guarantee that a station at that frequency will be available at a later time. Similarly, the absence of energy when the scan was performed does not prevent later availability. Such prior art scanner devices may be improved by incorporation of the present invention.
Prior art automobile broadcast entertainment radios often include favorite station memories which may be programmed by an operator such that a particular favorite broadcast station may be selected by simply pushing a button. These radios often include several sets of such memories, allowing an operator to manually select a set of stations for each location where a driver travels and thereby select the stations associated with that set. Drivers who commute to different cities may manually program these sets to include favorite stations associated with each such city by listening to a station, deciding it is one to be programmed and manually storing it in that memory. It is also well known that the driver can cause the automobile radio to scan, up or down the particular broadcast spectrum, for broadcast stations which can be received. The scan can either stop on the first station that is received, or can scan, one by one, to stations which can be received, pausing at each station for a few seconds to allow the driver to listen. The one by one scanning continues until the driver causes the scan to stop on that station during the pause.
It is well known however that broadcast entertainment radio stations, be they AM, FM, Satellite or others, will all experience dead spot locations where they cannot be received by a particular radio. For example, broadcast radio station reception may be blocked by buildings, tunnels, overhead traffic signals, street lights and power lines. There is no guarantee that a preset station can be received by these prior art automobile broadcast entertainment radios for any of several reasons, including that the driver forgets to change the set when driving from one city to the other and that the vehicle is stopped in or moving through a dead spot. Such prior art automobile entertainment radio devices may be improved by incorporation of the present invention.
In the prior art devices described above, where bad or good reception is indicated by some energy presence or strength (such as cell phone bars or scanners detecting energy), permanent and temporary factors such as reflections, interference, obstacles, lack of channel availability, movement and others as will be known from the teachings herein are not taken into account by the indication. In devices where a radio station was or wasn't available at a first scanning time but that information is no longer accurate, or where a radio station should not be received but is, or should be received but is not, as with those prior art radios described herein, and other factors such as moving signal reflectors, moving obstacles and/or moving radio devices may facilitate or interfere with communications. These factors are not taken into account by the prior art device mechanism which indicates availability.
Impairment factors (or lack thereof) and other reasons which cause a prior art radio device to not be able to communicate with another radio device which would otherwise be available, or cause it to be able to communicate with another radio device which would otherwise not be available, is not determined or known from the operation of the prior art radio device, or conveyed to the operator. The operation of those prior art radio devices only determines that a station on a particular broadcast frequency is or is not being received at a particular moment time when located at that particular location. Only that information is determined. No information about impairment or impairment factors or predicted or future impairment or factors (or lack thereof) is conveyed to the user.